England - London • Crime, fraud and licensing

Kingsley Napley LLP

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With an active presence in the white-collar defence sphere, the ‘stand out’ criminal litigation team at Kingsley Napley LLP is highly regarded for multi-jurisdictional cases spanning from money laundering to financial sanction breaches. Its client roster includes politicians, senior employees, and HNW individuals and the group regularly advises defendants in SFO, US DOJ, and INTERPOL Red Notice cases. Louise Hodges leads the practice, specialising in financial crime and complex fraud proceedings; former criminal litigation head and senior partner Stephen Parkinson was recently appointed as the UK’s new director of public prosecutions. Nicola Finnerty has expertise in cartels and insider dealing claims, and Jonathan Grimes focuses on regulatory and market manipulation issues. Caroline Day assists individuals with bribery and corruption investigations, while Alun Milford handles corporate crime and deferred prosecution agreements. Aaron Watkins is an expert on extradition issues. Other key names in the team include Rebecca Niblock , Edmund Smyth and legal directors Sophie Wood and Gemma Tombs .

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Kingsley Napley is a wonderful standout firm with talent and expertise at all levels. This is a highly experienced team.'

  • ‘Jonathan Grimes is a superb lawyer with an uncanny ability to predict how a case is likely to fare as it progresses from investigation to trial. He has wonderful judgement and inspires confidence.'

  • ‘Kingsley Napley have a great team with varied and longstanding experience in this area. They are one of the market leaders.’

  • ‘Louise Hodges provides great leadership for the team and has dealt with many of the most high-profile cases in the last twenty years.’

  • ‘Louise Hodges and Sandra Paul are both outstanding.’

  • ‘Rebecca Niblock: brings client dedication, deep legal knowledge, and stamina for hard work. Collectively, they make her indispensable to any difficult case.'

  • 'Edmund Smyth is knowledgeable and personable in equal measure; able to achieve outcomes others can't through sheer force of reasonableness.’
  • ‘Aaron Watkins and Rebecca Niblock are especially strong in cross border white collar work. Energetic, expert and engaging - they have the X factor in the big cases.’

Key clients

  • Government of the United States v Mike LYNCH

Lawyers

Hall of Fame

The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.

Louise Hodges

Hall of fameKingsley Napley LLP

Louise is Head of Kingsley Napley’s Criminal Litigation team specialising in financial crime, corporate investigations, FCA regulatory investigations and serious and complex fraud. Long recognised as a leader in this field, she is commended for her grasp of broader strategic issues and the practical advice she gives clients, both companies and individuals, caught up in complex litigation. She is experienced in advising companies and individuals with regard to internal investigations, frequently representing witnesses being interviewed either by employers or by investigating authorities, including those compelled to attend interviews. She leads the firm’s cross-practice Financial Services team and Internal Investigations team. She currently represents a number of individuals, including HNW individuals and business leaders, in a range of financial crime cases being investigated by the SFO, FCA, HMRC and NCA amongst others. She was part of the team representing Tesco in connection with their Deferred Prosecution Agreement and related criminal matters. Her cases frequently have an international element.

Rising stars

Leading individuals

Caroline Day

Kingsley Napley LLP

Caroline is a partner specialising in complex fraud and financial crime and represents individuals and corporates in complex global investigations. She acts in investigations and prosecutions brought by various agencies including the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). She has extensive experience advising in a wide range of alleged financial misconduct, including serious fraud, money laundering, bribery and corruption, and cartels. Her practice encompasses both domestic and cross border matters. Caroline also conducts internal investigations on behalf of her corporate clients. She has led numerous investigations into allegations of wrongdoing, and has a particular interest in cases with an international dimension. Much of her work is high profile and multi-jurisdictional.

Nicola Finnerty

Kingsley Napley LLP

Nicola is a leading criminal defence expert in white collar and business crime, general criminal defence, and proceeds of crime and asset forfeiture. Her expertise includes dealing with fraud, bribery and corruption, cartels, insider dealing, money laundering, and director’s disqualification.Over the last 25 years she has been involved in many of the most high-profile, complex criminal and regulatory investigations and prosecutions. She represents high net worth individuals, multi-national corporate clients, financial institutions and professional firms in investigations and proceedings brought by all the UK enforcement agencies including the SFO, FCA, CMA, HMRC, NCA, and other prosecuting bodies.She conducts and advises in internal investigations and is regularly appointed as an independent legal advisor. She also advises on matters relating to Mutual Legal Assistance.Nicola has a wider criminal defence practice and has significant experience of representing suspects during the investigatory stage or while held in police custody and during police interview.

Jonathan Grimes

Kingsley Napley LLP

Jonathan is an experienced criminal lawyer specialising in serious and complex cases. A leader in the field of Proceeds of Crime work, he has particular expertise dealing with law enforcement applications that seek to freeze or seize assets. His business crime practice includes all areas of financial crime and regulatory matters, including corruption, money laundering, anti-competitive behaviour, insider dealing, market manipulation, and fraud, often for HNW individuals. Jonathan also represents companies and individuals during the initial police and Health and Safety Executive investigation, through to the conclusion of cases at inquests or in the criminal courts. He has extensive trial experience over many years across all areas of crime. He acts as independent legal adviser in investigations of all kinds, many in the banking sector, attending numerous interviews with employers and regulators both in the UK and abroad. A number of his cases have involved advising individuals following requests from overseas authorities for UK assistance under Mutual Legal Assistance treaties. He is also Kingsley Napley’s Money Laundering Reporting officer.

Jill Lorimer

Kingsley Napley LLP

Jill is a partner in Kingsley Napley’s Financial Services Group. She has an extensive track record in advising firms and individuals facing regulatory and criminal investigations by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Having recently completed a 12 month secondment in the Criminal Prosecutions Team at the FCA, Jill has particular insight into the organisation’s approach to the investigation and prosecution of serious financial offences. Jill has particular experience in advising those facing insider dealing / market abuse and market manipulation allegations and offences under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). She also advises a number of authorised firms including private banks, wealth management firms and brokerages in respect of supervisory and enforcement issues. More generally, Jill has a broad fraud practice and has involvement in many of the largest Serious Fraud Office investigations. Jill has written widely on cyber-crime and has a particular interest in the regulatory and criminal aspects of crypto-assets and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).Chapter contributor to:Kingsley Napley: Serious Fraud, Investigation and Trial (4th edition, Lexis Nexis)Cyber Security: Law and Guidance (Bloomsbury Professional)

Rebecca Niblock

Kingsley Napley LLP

Rebecca is one of the UK’s leading extradition practitioners and heads the firm’s extradition team. She has successfully defended a large number of persons requested for extradition by other states, both inside and outside the EU. Her practice also encompasses other matters with an international component, including sanctions cases and Mutual Legal Assistance requests.Rebecca also advises on a wide range of white collar crime investigations including serious fraud, money laundering, cartel and corruption specialising in cases involving multi-jurisdictional elements. She has many years of experience of dealing with domestic criminal matters, from sexual offences to offences involving violence or drugs.Rebecca is a co-founder of the Defence Extradition Lawyers’ Forum, co-author of Extradition Law: A Practitioners Guide and author of the chapter on Extradition in Abuse of Process by Colin Wells.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Louise Hodges

Other key lawyers

Nicola Finnerty, Jonathan Grimes, Caroline Day, Alun Milford, Aaron Watkins, Rebecca Niblock, Edmund Smyth, Gemma Tombs, Sophie Wood